Smallville
by Tetsuwan Penguin
Summary: While testing a new escape rocket for Professor Ochanomizu, Astro is overcome by a nuclear explosion in space and crash lands in Jonathan Kent's corn field. Having lost his memory, Astro is adopted by the Kent's as their son Clark.
1. The Rocket in the Corn Field

**Smallville**

_Authors Note:_

_Osmau Tezuka once created a doodle in which he depicted several of his characters as superheros. Astro, Mustachio, Rock, Kimba, Blackjack, and even Tezuka himself were drawn wearing "Superman" costumes (though Tezuka drew himself as a 'flasher'!). Sapphire and Penoko were drawn in "Wonder Woman" garb. The illustration of Astro flying wearing a cape and an "S" on his chest gave me the idea for this story, in which Tetsuwan Atom falls to earth in Jonathan Kent's cornfield in Kal-El's place._

_So begins my "Smallville x Astro" cross over story …..._

_PS: This story originally appeared in the "Fan Creations" section of the AstroBoy-online forum web site._

* * *

_Part 1: The Rocket in the Corn Field_

"**Ochanomizu Hakase"** Astro called to the Professor as he entered the laboratory. "How can I help you?"

"Ah, Atom" the Professor answered, "You're just in time!"

The Professor was assembling what looked like a small rocket, smaller than the size of a very compact automobile.

"The space patrol asked us to design a new type of escape capsule for use on their manned fleet." He explained. "right now the crew can eject in their spacesuits if the ship is fatally damaged, but they can't re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and have to remain in orbit until they can be rescued. These one man ships can function as a lifeboat in space, or be used to return to Earth from orbit."

"Is that a mock up model?" Astro asked. "It looks kinda small for a manned ship."

"Yes it is." The professor told him. "This is a 3/4 size prototype. We've already wind tunnel tested a few of them, and a few more in atmospheric flight via remote control. Before we build the first full size models we need to make one more test on these prototypes. A full sized man can't fit inside this one, and I don't have time to build a complete instrumentation package for a test dummy."

"I get it!" Astro laughed. "I could fit in the prototype. You want me to test ride it?"

"Yes, would you do it?" The professor asked. "If anything should go wrong you could eject from the rocket and come back down to Earth on your own power."

"Sure, it would be fun!" Astro laughed. "How will the test work?"

"We'll put this prototype on top of a larger rocket launch vehicle and send it into orbit." He explained. "Then you'll test out the controls, and finally ride it back to a safe landing. That way we'll simulate this prototype operating as an escape capsule from a larger ship."

"When do we do it?" Astro asked.

"I'll be ready in a few days." The Professor told Astro. "meanwhile please study the instruction manual" he said, handing Astro a large bound volume.

* * *

**Astro** braced himself for the liftoff. The prototype escape ship was cramped even for his small statue. Professor Ochanomizu had provided extra cushioning in the form of thick blankets that Astro wrapped around himself. He thought that he must have looked like a baby in swaddling cloth the way he was wrapped up and stuffed into the test ship. The red and blue blankets were made from a fire proof Kevlar like fabric, which was as strong as steel. He did have free use of his arms to work the controls, and he could see around himself. The ship had no windows, but there were video cameras to provide some external view.

The count down reached zero and the booster rocket lifted off the launch pad. The acceleration was actually rather mild and Astro had no difficulty handling the G forces into orbit. Finally the booster rocket exhausted its fuel and the prototype separated from it and entered the planed orbit.

"How was the ride up?" the Professor asked over the radio.

"Not bad at all." Astro said. "I probably didn't need all the extra padding. "Now let's see how she handles."

Astro switched the ship into manual control and started to test it's maneuvering ability.  
"It handles like a dream, Hakase" Astro radioed back. "If I had to rendezvous and dock with a rescue craft, I'd have no problems doing so."

**A **heavily loaded freighter was in a similar orbit to Astro's on the other side of the planet. It was on a return flight from Mars, after being loaded with ore samples from mines on the red planet. The freighter's captain was in a hurry to get back to Earth, he was several day's ahead of his schedule and knew that he had a big fat bonus coming to him if he got back before his competition. He had overloaded his nuclear engines on the flight back, and they were badly overheating. In fact, the main reactor core had reached the critical point and alarms were sounding all over the ship.

As the freighter approached within viewing range of where Astro's test flight was operating its reactor started to melt down. The head engineer in the ship's engine room pressed the emergency eject switch, and the reactor core was jettisoned away from the freighter at high speed. The cargo ship fired its retro rockets and began an emergency descent and re-entry toward the planet below.

"Hakase" Astro radioed back to the Ministry of Science, "I think there is a ship in trouble near my orbit. I'm going to descend to a lower orbit and get out of its way. It just ejected its propulsion unit."

A second later the reactor went super critical and exploded. The nuclear detonation in space sent an EMP pulse aimed right at Astro's ship. Astro never knew what hit him, he lost consciousness and blanked out. The backup controls on the prototype activated and the reentry protocol was initiated. The ship made a steep entry into the atmosphere and its heat shield glowed white hot. The super heated plasma that trailed the ship could be seen from the surface as a meteor streaking across the sky. The ship made a rough landing as it bounced across a plowed field and dug a long crater into the ground.

* * *

**Jonathan** Kent and his wife Martha were sitting on the back porch of their farm house when they saw the meteor flaming across the late afternoon sky. It passed over their house heading for the back forty acres making a loud sonic boom as it passed overhead. A small mushroom shaped cloud rose over the newly plowed field where Jonathan and his brother had worked all the previous day getting the field ready to plant.

"What do you suppose that was?" Martha asked her husband. "Men from Mars landing?"

"I hardly think so." Jonathan told his wife. "More likely a rock from space, like the one we saw in the museum some years ago."

"Maybe it's worth something to the museum." his wife said. "We could use the money."

Jonathan looked up at the sky. He figured they had another hour and a half till dusk, just enough time to go look for whatever had fallen into their fields.  
"Yeah, we can go look for it." He said, checking that he had the keys to the pickup in his pocket.

Jonathan and his wife got in the old truck and drove out to where the plume of smoke was still rising. The truck bounced along the ruts in the dirt road that ran between the field where they would soon plant corn, and the one where wheat was already starting to sprout. As the truck got closer they could see that a long depression had been gouged into the field where the object from space had crashed into the Earth and skidded along, finally coming to a stop.

"It's a space ship!" Martha exclaimed as the truck stopped a few yards from the crater where the object had come to rest. The force of the final impact had sprung open a hatch and the inside of the small craft was open to their view. The couple got out of the truck and made their way over to the rocket. Heat still radiated from it, but it was cool enough to allow them to get close enough to see what was inside. Wrapped in heavy blue and red blankets was what appeared to be a male child, perhaps 9 or 10 years old. He was unconscious and limp.

Martha's maternal instincts took over and she reached into the craft to pick up the child.

"Be careful, don't hurt yourself dear." Jonathan told his wife.

"Nonsense, he's a light weight. Can't weigh more than 65 to 70 lbs." the woman said.

She carried the boy, still wrapped in the colorful blankets into the truck and held him on her lap. Her husband got in the driver's seat and they headed back to the farm house.

"I hope he's alright." Martha said. "Maybe we should call Doctor Brown to make a house call."

"Well, unless he's running a fever, I guess that can wait till the morning." Jonathan said looking at the setting sun.

"I suppose so." Martha agreed. "I'll clean him up and put him in the spare bedroom for now. Poor boy, I wonder where he came from."

"I almost hate to think about that." Jonathan said.


	2. Not Quite Human

**Smallville**

_Part 2: Not Quite Human_

**Astro** opened his eyes to find himself lying in a bed on the second story of an old farm house. The room was decorated with family photographs hanging in simple wooden frames on walls covered with stripped wallpaper. Astro sat up and looked down at himself. He was dressed in an old, but clean pair of farmer bib overall jeans and a long sleeve plaid shirt. On his feet were a pair of high top Keds and dark socks. A pair of red boots sat on a chair in the corner of the room, along with several red and blue blankets.

Astro rubbed his eyes and slowly lowered his feet to the floor. Satisfied that he was able to stand and walk he slowly exited the room and headed down the hallway to a staircase leading down.

**Jonathan** Kent sat in a chair in the parlor with a corn cob pipe clamped between his teeth. He struck a match and re-lit the pipe, sending a puff of fragrant smoke into the air. Martha Kent sat on the other side of the room facing her husband. She busied herself knitting. She wasn't yet sure if she was making a scarf or a sock hat, but she had time to decide as she'd only just started on the project.

Alerted by the squeak of footsteps on the old stairs, the couple looked up to see Astro descending from the upper level of the house to the parlor.  
"Ah, I see you're awake!" Jonathan said, resting the bowl of his pipe in a plate on the table next to his chair. "I hope my Nephew's old clothes fit you OK."

Astro slowly tried to smile as he got his first look at the couple that had rescued him from the crash. He looked down at himself and then at the Kent's. "The clothes are comfortable on me." He said. "Thank you."

"What is your name son?" Martha asked.

A look of confused panic set upon Astro's face. He stood there for a few seconds before he could make another sound.  
"I ….. I don't know!" He stammered. "I don't know who I am, or where I am!"

"You're in a farm house a few miles from the town of Smallville." Martha told him. "My name is Martha Kent, and this is my husband Jonathan. We found you out in the corn field inside of a small rocket ship that crash landed there."

The information didn't seem to make any sense to Astro. He rubbed the top of his head with his right hand and tried to think.  
"A space ship?" He asked. "I don't remember that."

"Poor boy must have had a concussion and got amnesia." Martha exclaimed to Jonathan. "I told you we should have called the Doctor."

"No!" Astro cried out. A sudden image formed in his head when he heard the word Doctor, and it scared him. "Don't call the Doctor! I feel fine, really. I just need time to remember!"

"He's a young spry." Jonathan told his wife. "He'll recover quick enough."

"I hope you're right." Martha said. "Well, in any case, you're going to stay with us, at least until you remember where you belong."

"That might get a bit complicated." Jonathan said.

"Nonsense!" Martha replied, having already thought trough the problem. "We'll tell anybody that asks that he is your younger brother Eliot's missing son Clark. We'll say that we've taken the boy in and might adopt him."

"Yes, that might work." Jonathan said. "Poor Eliot, he ran away to join the circus and got hooked up with that stupid Gypsy woman. Got her pregnant, and after the kid was born she ran away with him. Eliot searched for them for a few years and I finally heard from a detective that he'd hired who told me my brother had gotten himself killed. The kid and that Gypsy woman were never found, but Eliot had some photos of the kid on him when his body was discovered."

Martha got up from her chair and set her knitting down. She walked over to Astro and hugged him.  
"So it's all settled, you'll live with us and be like our adopted son." She said. "Since you don't remember your name, we'll call you Clark. That is, if it's OK with you."

"Sure." Astro said. "Clark is a nice name."

"Well then you must be hungry." Martha said. "I have some leftover chicken in the icebox. I'll carve you off a piece, OK."

"I guess so." Astro said, shrugging his shoulders.

* * *

**The** next day Astro woke up to the sound of the chickens outside the barn. Martha was hand feeding them grain, while Jonathan was changing a tire on the pickup truck. Astro wandered out of the house and took in the scene.

"I guess you're not used to waking up early?" Martha laughed. "We've been up for about two hours now getting started with the chores. I told Jonathan to let you sleep, since you're still recovering from yesterday."

"I'm sorry." Astro said. "What can I do to help?"

"Well the cow needs milking." Jonathan said. He finished tightening the lug nuts on the wheel and moved the jack to the front of the truck to lift it up. He then lay down on a creeper to crawl under the engine so he could change the oil.

Astro started off into the barn with the milk pail that Martha had given him when there was a sudden creak from where Mr. Kent was working on the truck. The jack suddenly let go, dropping the front of the truck down, trapping him under the transmission.  
"HELP!" he cried out in pain.

Astro dropped the pail and ran out of the barn like a streak of greased lighting. He quickly lifted the front of the truck in the air with one hand and pulled Jonathan out from under it with the other. The Kent's stared at their adopted son in wonder.

"What's wrong?" Astro stammered, seeing the strange looks in the couple's eyes.

"You just lifted the heavy end of the truck with one hand like it weighed nothing!" Jonathan gasped. "And you pulled me out from under it like I was a rag doll!"

"Are you OK?" Martha asked her husband. "Is anything broken?"  
Mr. Kent got up and slowly put his weight on the leg that had been pinned down by the truck.  
Astro stared at Jonathan's leg and blurted out. "No broken bones, but some minor bruises" he quickly said.

"How do you know that, Clark?" Jonathan asked.

"I could see inside your leg," Astro replied, not realizing how abnormal that was.

"You have X-Ray vision?" the old man questioned.

"Yes, I guess I do." Astro said.

Mr. Kent sat down on the front bumper of the truck. He pulled a handkerchief from out of his pocket and wiped his brow.  
Martha looked at Astro and then at her husband.

"We're going to have to keep this a secret." Mr. Kent sighed. "If word gets out about this kid's abilities, we might have some problems."

"I think I have an idea about that." Martha said as she rubbed Astro's shoulders. "Our super son just might be a gift from heaven."


	3. He's Invulnerable!

**Smallville**

_Part 3: He's Invulnerable!_

**From **where he was sitting, Jonathan could see his neighbor's green pickup truck bouncing up and down their driveway. Fredrick Ford, who lived about three miles down the two lane state highway was the closest neighbor to the Kent farm. The Ford's and the Kent's had been good friends since they were in high school, and they looked out for each other. As the truck approached the farm house, Jonathan spoke to Astro. "Try and act normal, Clark. I'll introduce you to him."

Fred parked the truck near the house, got out and walked over to where Astro and Jonathan were sitting. "Hello John!" he said. "I've got the money I owe you." Fredrick pulled a bank envelope from his shirt pocket and handed it to Mr. Kent. "Go ahead and count it, it's all there."

Jonathan Kent took the envelope from Fred, and lifted the flap. He pulled out a small stack of one hundred dollar bills and carefully counted them. Kent then replaced all but one of the bills back into the envelope and put it into his back pocket.  
"You counted wrong Fred." he said. "You only owed me 900 bucks, there was 1000 in there.

"I made no mistake, Jonathan." Fred smiled. "The extra bill was interest on the loan."

Kent tried to push the 100 dollar bill back into Fred's hand. "I'm not a bank or a loan shark, Fred. I don't charge my best friends interest."

Fred refused to take back the hundred. "Look John, if you hadn't lent me that money, I'd never have been able to get my crop of oats planted on time. Thank's to you I had a bumper crop ready at just the right time. A week later and the market price would have been a lot lower. I made a lot more profit on that crop because of the timing, thanks to you. My wife thinks there should have been another hundred or two in that envelope, so keep it, it's yours. Take your lovely wife out to dinner at the steak house in town."

Kent stuffed the extra bill into his shirt pocket. "OK, if you put it that way." he said.

"Thanks again." Fred said as he walked back to his truck.

Astro and Jonathan watched Fred drive off. When the neighbor was out of sight, Kent gave a sigh of relief.  
"Thank God Fred came though with the money." He said. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to remind him, though I knew he was good for it when I loaned it to him. Now I can make good on the money I owe the bank."  
Kent turned toward Astro. "Hey Clark, want to ride into town with me? I've got to deposit this money in the bank."

"Sure, Mr. …, I mean dad." Astro said.

"While you're in town would you pick me up some embroidery needles and some heavy blue and red thread?" Martha asked.

* * *

**Astro** and Jonathan road into town in silence in the old pickup truck on the two land state highway that ran by the entrance to the Kent farm. For the last few miles the road ran parallel to the railroad tracks that led into town. As they got close to Smallville a passenger train speed past them, heading into town. Astro had a good view of the train as it overtook the truck. He could make out the faces of the passengers looking out the windows, and he saw the face of a pretty girl about his age staring back at him.

As they entered the town, Jonathan pointed out to Astro some of the landmarks. "There is the school house, Clark." He said. "The new school year starts in a few weeks, I think we should stop by and get you enrolled. It will be good for you to be with other children your own age."  
"I'd like that." Astro agreed.

They drove past the bank and saw that the street was crowded. "We'll have to park on the side street, I guess." Jonathan said. He turned the truck off Main Street, and onto Maple Road. Maple was a narrow side street, with ample parking next to a vacant lot.

* * *

**Over** in the bank, a man in dark glasses ran out of the front door with a large pistol in one hand, and a sack of money in the other. He ran toward the street where he had left his car parked with the motor running for a quick getaway. Unfortunately for him, Butch Klide, the town's worst high school juvenile delinquent, had noticed the high powered sports car and decided to take it for a joy ride. The gunman exited the bank just in time to spot his ride roaring down Main Street in a cloud of dust. Realizing that he now needed to find alternate transportation, the bank bandit turned the corner onto Maple Road, and spotted Kent closing the door to his truck.

"Give me the keys to your truck, old man!" the bandit ordered, while brandishing the Magnum 44 in Kent's face. Jonathan stood there frozen in fear, unable to move a muscle. This didn't sit well with the gunman who was in a hurry to be elsewhere.

"I said, hand over those keys, or I'll take them from your cold dead body!" he yelled. Kent was still frozen in terror. The criminal quickly turned his head to make sure that the law wasn't on their way. Astro made use of that moment to advance toward him, putting himself between the gunman and his new dad. Out of the corner of his eye, the bandit saw Astro move, and he instinctively pulled the trigger on the weapon. The semi-automatic gun fired two rounds at point blank range into Astro's chest. The two slugs ricocheted off of him, one nicking the ear of the bank robber.

"You shouldn't have done that!" Astro said, a look of anger glaring in his eyes.

Now it was the criminal who was frozen in terror. Astro yanked the gun quickly from the man's right hand, fracturing two of his fingers in the process. As he did so, the gun discharged one more round which bounced off of Astro's forehead, parting the hair of the robber. Astro squeezed the gun in his hands, folding it into a compact sphere about the size of a baseball. He dropped the mangled weapon at the bandit's feet.

With that, the criminal quickly turned and ran, crashing head first into the Sheriff, who had just arrived on the scene. The lawman quickly cuffed the bandit and stuffed him into the back seat of his police car. All the way back to police HQ, the bank robber was stammering about the 'super boy' who had foiled his getaway. The Sheriff figured he was dealing with a drunk, or a drug addict.

* * *

**Jonathan **quickly recovered from the ordeal, even more amazed at the kid he and his wife had found in the crashed spaceship in the corn field. They deposited the money into the Kent's back account, and then went to the general store to get the sewing supplies that Martha had asked for.

"I don't know what I'm going to tell your mother." Jonathan said, as they drove back to the farm.


	4. I'm a robot?

**Smallville**

_Part 4: I'm a robot?_

**Astro **and Jonathan got home from town just in time to help Martha start preparing dinner. Martha had gotten the blankets that Astro was wrapped up in when they found him from his bedroom, and left them on her seat in the parlor. She put the embroidery needles and thread from the General Store into her sewing basket,and left that on her parlor seat as well.  
They had pork chops for dinner, with apple pie for desert. Astro helped Jonathan mend the fence by the road after dinner, they managed to get the repairs finished just before sunset. Martha looked up at the clock and turned to Astro.  
"Clark, maybe you should turn in early." She suggested. "You need to get used to getting up early to help with the chores."

"Sure, Mom." Astro said, starting to climb the stairs to his room.

"Oh, leave your clothes in the laundry basket out in the hall. I'm going to start the laundry bright and early tomorrow. You can find clean clothes for tomorrow in the dresser in your room."

"OK" Astro answered. He climbed the stairs and undressed, putting on the pajamas that Martha had left out for him. He dropped the shirt, jeans and socks he'd worn into the basket outside of his room and closed the door.

Martha waited till she heard the door close before going up the stairs to  
retrieve the basket. She picked up the plaid shirt that Clark had been wearing and a strange look crossed her face.  
"My!" she said. "Clark is sure hard on clothes. Look there are two holes in this shirt."

Jonathan looked at his wife and said. "Don't blame Clark, that wasn't his fault."

Martha stuck her fingers though the garment, examining the torn fabric. "Two clean round holes." she said. "If I didn't know better, I'd say they were bullet holes."

"Actually, they are." Jonathan told his wife. "We had a bit of excitement in town today. I didn't mention it, because I didn't want to excite you."

"Clark got shot?" Martha cried out. "He didn't seem injured at all." She held up the shirt and pointed to the holes. "Someone shot like that should be dead!"

"That's the thing." Jonathan said. "The bullets bounced off of him. Clark seems to be invulnerable to gun fire. It's like he's made of steel or something."

* * *

**Up** in his room, Astro was confused. He'd been going over the events of the day in his head and didn't understand what was happening to him. He could hear his foster parents talking downstairs quite plainly. Astro held his arms up in front of his face. He looked through them the way he had looked through Jonathan's leg to see that it wasn't broken. Only inside of his own arms he didn't see bone, muscles, veins, arteries and nerves. He saw wires, servos, and universal joints. Astro looked down at his chest and looked within, again using his vision in the X-Ray spectrum. He could see the mechanisms, the wiring and circuits. He felt along his chest and found a sensitive spot, pressing on it a panel opened up and he could reach inside and observe where his power couplings and recharge ports were.

"I'm a robot?" he asked himself. Terrified at the discovery, he ran down the stairs and confronted the Kent's. "Mom, Dad," he quavered. "What am I?" The panel on his chest was open.

Martha swooned and fainted, catching herself on one of the parlor chairs. Jonathan stared with wide eyes at Astro.  
"It all makes sense now." He said. "Martha, the boy's really a robot. That's why he has these incredible powers. That's why he can't be harmed by gun shots."

Martha recovered her composure and reached into her sewing basket for a cloth tape measure. "Come here Clark." she said.  
Astro closed his chest panel and walked toward his mother, who took him in her arms and hugged him.  
"It's alright son." she said "I still love you."

Martha took a step back. "We can't have you revealing what you are in public. No one must know that Clark Kent has these super powers." She said. "But, you will end up using them to help people, so we need to invent an alternate identity for you."

Martha took the tape measure and held it up to Astro. She measured him around his waist, around his chest, the length of his instep, and arms. She jotted the information down on a piece of paper.

"What are you doing, dear?" Jonathan asked.

"I'm going to make a costume for him out of the blankets he was wrapped in." She said. "When Clark needs to use his powers for good, he will wear this costume so he won't be recognized as Clark Kent. He will be known as Super Boy."

* * *

**When** Astro descended the stairs the next morning he found Martha waiting for him. She was proudly holding up her creation for him to try on. Astro took the hand stitched outfit into the ground floor bathroom, and emerged wearing it. He had on the red boots that he'd worn in the rocket, a tight fitting blue pair of leggings with a red brief, a blue long sleeve shirt with a large red "S" on the front, and a red cape. Except for his original boots, the entire outfit had been fashioned from the blankets he'd been wrapped in.

"From now on Clark, whenever you're called upon to use your abilities for the good of the town, you'll wear this outfit and you'll be known as 'Super Boy' she told him.  
Astro looked at himself in the mirror and smiled. He flexed his arm muscles and admired himself.

"That material was very hard to cut," Martha told him, "I had to use your father's tin shears to cut the patterns out. I guess it's some kind of space age fabric."

Jonathan Kent walked into the parlor. He had been watching from the kitchen, but now walked closer to his adopted son to get a better look at him.  
"You look quite the hero in that outfit, Clark." He beamed. "Somehow, I think that maybe there was a reason you crash landed here. Maybe it was your destiny to be a hero."

Astro blushed. "I don't know." he sighed. "I still can't remember a thing that happened before I work up a few days ago. My memory is still a blank."  
"Well, give it time, son." Jonathan told him. "It's still only been a few days. Something will eventually spark your memory."

"I hope so." Astro said. "There is one thing I do think I remember."

"What's that, Clark?" Martha asked.

"I will need to be refueled eventually." Astro said. "I'm a robot and I run on some kind of nuclear fuel. Once my energy runs low I'll shut down like I'm in a coma."

"I think I know who might be able to help us with that." Jonathan said. "There is a whiz kid genius in town who's always inventing stuff. It will be a bit tricky getting his help without giving too much away, but we might have to chance it. The kid's name is Lex Luthor, he's not a bad type, bit of a nerd though. Change back into your normal clothes and we'll go into town and register you for school. Then we'll see if we can't feel out master Luthor and see if he can help."


	5. Superboy to the rescue

**Smallville **

_Part 5: Superboy to the rescue_

**Jonathan **Kent and Astro walked into the Smallville school building office. School was still closed for the summer, though registration of new students had already begun with labor day just a week away. Miss June Trout had been teaching at the Smallville lower school when Jonathan was a kid, she was now the school's principal.

"Hello Johnny!" she said, still remembering him as a kid.

"Hello Miss Trout" Kent said. "This is my younger brother's kid, Clark, who's living with us now. I'd like to register him for class starting in the fall. He'll be ten years old real soon now."

Astro smiled at the principal. "Hello" he said softly.

"I didn't know you had a nephew" Miss Trout said.

"Neither did I, until a few days ago." Jonathan said, mentally crossing his fingers behind his back. He hated to lie, but the truth wasn't an option.

"Well, I guess it's nice to find missing family members reunited." she answered, handing him a form to fill out. "I'll be glad to see you in school this fall, Clark. Welcome to Smallville."

That task completed, they walked out of the school building.  
"I'm not sure where the Luthor's live." Jonathan told Clark, but I think the chemist might know.

They headed over to the drugstore and found Mr. Ludwig the proprietor just finishing a prescription for a customer.  
"Hello Jonathan!" the chemist said. "How can we help you today? Is Martha's arthritis acting up again?"

"No, Martha is just fine, thank you." Kent said. "I actually wanted to talk to that whiz kid, Lex. I figured you might know where he lives."

"That pain in the rear?" Mr. Ludwig laughed. "Yeah, I know where he lives, he almost burned the place down several times with his chemistry experiments. He used to buy most of his supplies from me, until he started needing stuff I couldn't legally sell. I think he's dealing with shady out of town mail order houses now. He lives at the end of main street, near the edge of town."

"Thank you." Kent said.

"If you don't mind my asking, what do you need with Lex?"

"Oh, I've got a machine that needs fixing, and I had this idea that he could help." Kent said.

"He probably could, but you be careful. Lex has been know to fix things so well, that they no longer work as they were intended to. Take my coke machine over there." The pharmacist pointed to the corner of the store. "It stopped keeping cold and the company wanted quite a few hundred bucks to replace it. Lex told me he could fix it, and he sure did. Only now it gets so cold that the pop bottles are frozen solid, and they take an hour to thaw out after they come out of the machine!"

"I'll keep that in mind." Jonathan said, as he and Astro walked out of the store.

* * *

**They **headed back to the truck, and were about to get in when the wail of sirens hit their ears. Two fire engines and the sheriff's car were zooming down Main street toward the railroad station.  
"What's going on?" Jonathan asked Patrick Griffin, the Sheriff's deputy who was trying to direct traffic on the street.

"Somethings wrong with the train." he said. "The station master radioed in that a runaway train was heading into the station. They think the engineer must have had a heart attack, leaving the train running with the throttle wide open."

"But that's not supposed to happen." Kent told the deputy, "those engines have a dead-man switch that should prevent that."

"Well nothing is fool proof." Patrick replied.

* * *

**Nine** year old Lois Lane had spent half of her summer in the state capital with her father, and the other half in Smallville with her mother. She wished her parents hadn't gotten divorced, and with the new school year about to start she was really depressed. She loved her father, but she didn't want to leave her school friends in Smallville. When the judge had agreed on a joint custody for her, the arrangement that had been finally worked out was for her to spend the school year with her mother in Smallville, and alternate weekends with her father. During the summer, she had gone back and forth between the two, spending a week here and the next week there.

At least it was an easy trip between her father's place in the capital, and her mother in town. It was only an hour and a half train ride, and Lois loved traveling by train. She got to know the conductor and the engineer on a first name basis, and made friends with a lot of the regular passengers as well. She loved looking out the windows watching the scenery go by. It was easy to tell when the train was getting close to her mother's station, that's when the tracks started running parallel to state highway773 which ran right into town. She'd watch the cars go by look at the people in them.  
On the last trip into town, she'd seen this dreamy boy looking out the passenger side window of an old Ford pickup who stared right back at her.

As the train turned around the final bend, and the highway came into view, something seemed wrong. Their speed was increasing and the train was zooming past the traffic on the road much too fast. She saw the conductor coming into her car to help take down luggage for the passengers getting off at Smallville.  
"Hey mister Jones" she asked the conductor. "Is something wrong, we seem to be going a bit fast."

"Oh just a bit, maybe." the conductor answered. "Charlie the Engineer might be trying to make up some time. We had to wait a long time back in Clarksville for the freight to pass, remember?"  
"Oh yeah." Lois said. "Maybe that's it."

* * *

**Jonathan** parked his truck near the station and he and Clark got out. There was a crowd of people gathered near the station. The Sheriff had a bull horn and was trying to order everyone to leave, he insisted that it might be dangerous if they couldn't stop the train. He saw Mr. Kent and spoke to him.  
"Jonathan, maybe you could talk some sense into this crowd. I've got the fire department going up the tracks to try and set up a road block. I doubt they will be able to do anything to stop the train though. If it is a runaway, and hits the station at 90 mph, it will derail and crash into god knows how many houses." The Sheriff handed the bullhorn to Mr. Kent who started to repeat the warning.

* * *

**Astro** ran back to the truck and grabbed his super outfit from under the seat where he'd left it. He changed into it at lighting speed and started to run toward the station. In the distance he could make out the fire engines which had been parked on the tracks in a feeble attempt at a road block. He discovered that his eyes could operate as telescopes and he now saw the train approaching at high speed. Astro ran toward the pending disaster hoping to prevent it. He ran faster and faster, and suddenly found himself airborne, flying!

The bottoms of Astro's feet opened up and the nozzles of jet engines emerged. He was now jet propelled, and flying toward the approaching train, which was now less than half a mile from where the fire department was making their last stand.

Engineer Charlie Smith, had indeed suffered a heart attack. During the onset of the chest pain he had knocked his lunch pail off of the shelf where he had placed it, and the heavy bucket had landed on top of the foot switch that kept the engine running. That foot switch was the infamous, "dead man", the idea being that an unconscious man would not be able to keep pressure on it. A simple accident had just disabled the function. Charlie lay on the floor of the cab, with the throttle left wide open.

Astro flew along side the engine and saw the problem. He smashed through the front window of the locomotive and threw the throttle back to idle and applied the brakes. The crew on the fire engines had a front row seat, and saw exactly what happened. The train came to a stop inches from their improvised roadblock.


	6. The story gets out

**Smallville**

_Part 6: The story gets out_

**Lex Luthor** had a good view of the railroad station from the window of his third floor bedroom with his telescope. He had seen the crowd gathering in the street from the window, and quickly aimed the high powered telescope to see what was going on. In the distance he could see the train speeding into the station, heading for disaster. Suddenly, a blue and red streak flew across his field of view heading toward the train. Lex twisted the zoom on his eyepiece and watched as Super Boy flew into the locomotive to stop the train. It didn't take the boy genius very long to figure out what this new hero was, the subtle lack of fluidity of his movements gave him away. "I've got to meet this being" Lex thought to himself. He ran downstairs and jumped on his motorized bicycle.

* * *

**Engineer** Smith's lips were starting to turn blue. Astro felt for a pulse, but there wasn't any. Deep in his computer brain, a store house of general knowledge became available to him, and he realized that unless the man's heart was restarted, he'd never make it to the hospital alive. Without knowing how he did it, Astro's internal power supply built up a charge between his hands. Astro ripped the man's shirt off and placed his palms on Smith's chest, discharging himself. The electrical pulse acted as a defibrillator, shocking Smith's heart back into normal sinus rhythm. Astro placed his mouth over Smith's and blew in. After three breaths, Charlie coughed and started breathing on his own. The color returned to his skin.

Fire Chief Stanley Stokey jumped into the cab of the locomotive just as Smith opened his eyes.  
"What happened?" the engineer asked.

"It seems you passed out at the controls, Charlie." Stanley told him, "And this lad saved your life, not to mention a good chunk of the town."

An ambulance arrived next to where the locomotive sat, and the paramedics brought a stretcher on board to carry Smith over to the waiting vehicle. It rolled away with its sirens blaring, heading for the hospital. A reporter from the local newspaper held his Graflex Speed Graphic up and snapped a picture of Astro in the Super Boy outfit.

"Looks like we have a new hero here in Smallville." the reporter said. He took out his news pad and interviewed the firemen, who had witnessed Astro's heroics, and began to formulate the story that would hit the evening edition.

**Astro** walked away from the train, and headed back toward the station where Jonathan Kent was waiting. Lex Luthor arrived there about the same moment on his motorized bicycle. The boy genius looked at Astro and asked "who are you?"

Jonathan looked at Clark and mouthed something, Astro read his lips.  
"You can call me Superboy" he said.

"You're a robot, aren't you?" Luthor asked.

"How did you know that?" Jonathan asked.

"I watched him carefully." Lex said. "He moves with a very slight mechanical gait. I can tell, I've built a few robots, though none with his sentience."

"You're Lex Luthor, aren't you?" Jonathan asked.

"That's me" the boy genius nodded.

"What do you know about Atomic fuel?" Astro asked. Lifting his shirt, he opened his chest panel and pointed to the refueling port inside.  
Lex peered into Astro's inner cavity and thought. "Liquid deuterium fuel, no doubt. Can be refined from distilled heavy water. I could build a device to recover enough of that from sea water to do the job. Of course I'd need something up front to cover my costs."

"I think I could arrange that." Astro said. He walked over to the nearby railroad tracks and picked up a lump of coal from the ground that fallen from the tender of a passing train. Holding the lump of coal between his hands he squeezed it, twisting his fists tighter and tighter together. Smoke wafted from between his fingers. When Astro opened his hands, he was holding a small diamond, he had performed in a few moments a transformation that takes nature thousands of years to do naturally.

"Will this do?" he asked tossing the rough diamond toward the boy.

Lex held the stone up to let the sunlight pass through it. "Wow!" he gasped. "Must be several hundred carats! Yeah, I can buy enough supplies to build the required apparatus with this!"

* * *

**The** Smallville Gazette ran the story about the runaway train on page one of the evening edition. The news also hit the press wire services and was picked by the newspapers of several nearby towns. It was mentioned toward the end of the TV evening news in the state capital. Three days later, it showed up in a random search engine cache and ended up toward the end of a large file being compiled by a spider program running on Reno's computer at the Ministry of Science.

The next day, Professor Ochanomizu showed up in his office and mindlessly drank his black tea. He'd been in the dumps for a week after the loss of the prototype escape capsule with Astro on board. Reno entered his office with a bit of a grin on his face.

"Ochanomizu Hakase" Reno said "have you opened your email yet this morning."

"I'm sorry, Reno." The professor began. "I've been in a bit of a fog for the past week. Every possible search angle has turned up nothing. I feel responsible for Astro's loss. I wish I knew what happened to him."

"Take a look at what my spider program dug up last night." Reno said. "It may be nothing, but it may be everything."

Ochanomizu opened the email and the attachment. He quickly paged to the end of the file and saw the news item. "_Runaway train stopped by Superboy. Derail disaster averted. Engineer recovering after hero administers emergency cpr."_

The professor looked at the blurry black and white picture of the costumed super hero. The face looked very familiar.


	7. It's Astro!

**Smallville**

_Part 7: It's Astro!_

**Lois Lane** looked with start struck eyes at the boy in the cape who had stopped the train. She ran up to Astro, shoved her way between him, Jonathan Kent, and Lex Luthor, and pulling him towards her planted a kiss on his face.

"Who are you?" Astro asked in shock.

"I'm Lois Lane, and you are my hero!" she said.

Astro didn't know what to do, his face turned beet red in embarrassment. Jonathan politely took the young girl by her hand and led her away from his adopted son.  
"I think Superboy has some important business to take care of, hero stuff you understand." He said.

"That's OK." Lois told him as she started walking towards her mother's house. "I'll find him again later."

**Lex Luthor** pocketed the huge diamond. He pulled out a small business sized card and handed it to Astro. "Here's my phone number in town. Call me in a few days, I should have some good news for you by then."

"Thanks" Astro said.

Astro took off, and flew back to the Kent farm. It would have been hard to sneak back to the truck and change out of his super costume and back into Clark's clothing with the crowd hanging around the train station, so he figured just disappearing would be safer. Jonathan let the sheriff thank him for his help with the crowd, and then he got in his truck and headed back home. By the time he got there Clark was helping Martha to put dinner up.

* * *

**Reno** processed the blurry picture of the the costumed superhero the the red "S" on his chest, trying to get a better view of the face. "I'm almost certain that's Astro" he told the professor.

"Where did that story originate?" Ochanomizu asked.

"A small town called Smallville, in the middle of the American farm land, somewhere in Kansas I think." Reno said.

"If you can find more proof that our missing escape capsule actually came down in that area, I'll go out there and look around." The professor replied. "If that superhero in the news story actually is Astro, there are some things that don't make sense."

"I agree." Reno replied. "If Astro wasn't damaged in the crash landing of the capsule he should have made contact with us some time ago. The fact that he didn't, yet appears to be in working order as that photo would indicate, suggests that he suffered a memory loss."

"Astro has suffered from amnesia before." The professor said. "Usually as a result of exposure to a very strong EMP field. He did report a nuclear powered freighter with engine trouble just before we lost contact with the test vehicle. That could explain a lot."

Reno's fingers flew across the keyboard of his computer. He quickly cross referenced the facts and did a quick search.

"Yes, the space merchant marines have on record that there was a nuclear powered freighter returning from Mars that day." Reno reported. "They ejected their reactor core just before it went super critical and exploded. The freighter returned safely, after making an emergency landing in Antarctica."

"Now that we now the probable cause for the disappearance of the test vehicle we should be able to back track it's path and compute its likely landing spot." Ochanomizu thought aloud.

"I'm already on it!" Reno said as he did some quick hacking. A few minutes later he pulled a sheet of paper from the laser printer on his desk and handed the printout to the professor.

"Yes, this just about confirms it." Ochanomizu said. "Given the reported orbit of that freighter, the ground observations of the explosion in space and the timing of it, plus our own tracking information up the the moment we lost contact with Astro's escape capsule, the predicted reentry path takes it quite close to central Kansas."

"I'm coming with you." Reno demanded. "If Astro's AI is damaged, you're going to need my help to restore his memory."

"I agree." The professor answered. "I'll have Yuko arrange our transportation. In the mean while you get what gear you'll need to help Astro, and I'll collect what I need for the recovery of what remains of our test capsule. With any luck we can salvage this test flight and restore Astro's memory as well."

* * *

**Martha** Kent scooped out a generous helping of mashed potatoes and dumped it on Jonathan's plate.  
"Well, I guess you two had an exciting day today." she said. "and Clark got to try out my sewing handiwork."

"We sure did, Martha." Jonathan said. "We also go to talk to that brainiac kid, Lex Luthor, in town. He agreed to help us with Clark's fuel problem. By the way son, after that bit of hero work how long do you have left before that becomes a problem?"

Astro opened his chest panel and looked at the indicators. "I think it shows me still being a bit more than half full." He said. "I should be OK for a while yet."

"Did the day's excitement bring back any memories?" his father asked.

"Only a few vague things." Clark replied. "Despite the fact that you found me in what looked like a small space ship I'm certain that I was born here on Earth, but in another country. I think somewhere in Asia, actually."

* * *

**The** Town of Smallville celebrated four holidays in mass. For each of these, the town counsel put aside funds to put together something to bring the town's people together to enjoy the occasion. The 4th of July was probably the biggest bash they put together with an all day bar-b-q, music, and a huge fireworks display after dark. On Thanksgiving day they would have a parade running though downtown, mimicking what Macy's did in NYC, but on a much smaller scale. For Christmas they would set up a tree in the center of the town, right in front of City Hall, all decorated with lots of lights. And then there was the Labor Day celebration. Labor day was not officially the last day of summer, that actually happened about two weeks later. But it was the last hurrah of the summer, with school starting the next day for the local kids.

The Labor Day bash was a miniature version of the July 4th festivities. No fireworks, but a baseball game between the fire department and the police department, free hot dogs, and lots of pop corn and cotton candy. The local 4H club usually held a contest where farm produce and live stock were judged. Things like the biggest ear of corn, or the largest watermelon were put on display. Jonathan Kent had volunteered to help with this year's judging. This year there would also be a stock car race with the winner's prize being a brand new Caddy from the local dealership.

"You'll enjoy the holiday Clark." he told his son. "This town really pulls together on the holidays."


	8. Preparing for Labor Day

**Smallville**

_Part 8: Preparing for Labor Day_

**Lex** Luthor looked at the oscilloscope screen and groaned. He'd been working on his uncle's stock car racer for several hours, and he still wasn't happy with the timing. The car's engine computer was tied into his Macbook computer while Luthor adjusted the engine parameters he watched the real time analysis on the four channel 'scope. It hadn't taken him long to hack into the 'Chevy's firmware, but he gradually realized that he'd missed something, because the engine wasn't running quite the way he wanted. Tiberius Mooney took that moment to walk into the garage and found his nephew still working on the car.

"Hey, she sounds real nice." Tiberius said. "Thanks Nephew."

"Hi, Uncle Mooney." Lex answered without turning to look. "Yeah, it does sound nice, but there is still something wrong. I can't seem to get the valve timing optimum. Might cost you a few milliseconds at the finish line."

"I would think that would be close enough." Tiberius laughed. "You know, sometimes perfection comes at too high a price. Anyway, I need to take her out on the track. The qualifying runs start in half an hour."

Lex Looked at his watch and sighed. "Yeah, you're right. Well I think I've got your car running well enough for you to qualify for a good starting position, but bring it back to me afterwards and I'll get it perfect for the race tomorrow."

"Sounds good to me." Tiberius agreed.

* * *

**After** changing planes three times, Professor Ochanomizu and Reno now found themselves on a twin engine turboprop puddle jumper out of Kansas City, Mo., bound for Smallville. Ochanomizu was delighted at first to find that the town even had an airport, until he discovered that there were only two commercial flights a day in and out of there, both connecting with the nearby Kansas City airport. They had a long layover in the prairie city, and spent the time holed up in a nearby movie theater watching a double feature of two "B" scifi flicks from the 1960's.

The plane was a Basler BT-67, a DC-3 turboprop conversion outfitted for short range passenger service. While the seating was cramped, the flight was only half full and so they had plenty of room to stretch out. The unpressurized aircraft flew below the weather at about 8000 feet, making for a bit of a bumpy ride. By the time they landed, they were both glad to catch a taxi to their hotel.

"Tomorrow is the American Labor Day holiday." the professor told Reno. "I understand that the entire town will be out in celebration, there will be various activities in progress, including a baseball game and an auto race. It may make it easy to find Atom, though he may not be in that Superboy costume unless something happens."

* * *

**Donald** Hughes stood on the movable platform of the cherry picker inspecting the gas bag of his blimp. He'd bought the thing second hand from an advertising company on the ropes, and had then built a hangar for it out of several surplus military portable buildings that were being scrapped by the government.

Don owned the Smallville airport and the only airline that served it. It had been his dream to get one of the high technology companies in an expansion mode to locate a division in his town. To do that, he'd have to get Smallville on the map. None of the major airlines were interested in bringing any flights to Smallville, he couldn't even get any of the minor carriers to talk to him. So he started his own airline, using what funds he'd managed to save, and borrowed the rest. Luckily for him some banker thought he was actually related to the famous billionaire with the same last name. Unfortunately for him, that wasn't really the case. Smallville Air, only owned the one airplane, which Hughes was able to buy on credit at a good price when another buyer backed out of a deal. Don's other business was flying crop dusters for the local farmers, and contract work for the USPS.

The blimp was his latest endeavor, he had a managed to get a contract with two of the regional radio and TV stations for aerial camera work, and traffic reporting. He touched up a few paint spots on the outside of the blimp and then lowered the platform of the cherry picker. Earlier, he had topped off the lifting gas of the aircraft. He'd managed to get a good supply of helium from a gray market supplier he'd never heard of before. He didn't question where the material came from, he was glad to get it at the price, and judging from the performance of the blimp, the stuff was good. Tomorrow he would be in the blimp getting good aerial views of the auto race. He was hoping for a good labor day.

* * *

**Clyde** Coch drove his Jeep Grand Cherokee 4x4 off of the main road leading into Smallville, and took a cow path across a plowed field. After going about 5 miles over the rough terrain he came to a tent set up in the middle of the field. Two of his employees were operating the drilling equipment that had been set up there for several weeks.

"Any good news to report?" Clyde asked.

"Here, take a look for yourself." Poindexter Drake said, handing his boss a printout. "The geologist dropped his report off about a half hour ago. He couldn't wait for you to show up, he had business else where."

"Hmph." Clyde moaned. "He must be working for one of our competitors as well."

"Probably." Poindexter agreed. "Those egg heads don't take sides, they just work for whoever comes up with the cash."

Coch quickly thumbed through the geologist's report. He gradually developed a smile on his face, which only got larger the further into the report that he read.

"Looks very good." He said. "I want you two to start setting up the hydraulic fracking equipment. Work all day, and into the night if you have to, I want to see preliminary results ASAP."

"But, we're still waiting on the final approval for the go ahead on the fracking from the state commission." Poindexter told his boss. "And they are still waiting on signed waivers from two of the holdout farmers, a mister Kent, and a a mister Ford. Besides, I'm not convinced the technology is totally safe in this environment."

"Screw the approval!" Clyde roared. "Besides, this is only a test well, by the time we are ready for full production I'll have the approval from the commission. I've already paid off enough of those SOB's and they will see it our way. They just have to put on a good show for the voters, that's all. Of course we may have to put some pressure on those two farmers. Also don't tell me the technology isn't safe! I've been using it across the country to bring in lot's of new wells, and nobody has yet proven that it's dangerous. If you won't do the work I'll hire someone else!"

Poindexter shrugged his shoulders. "OK, Boss, consider it done." He said. "Just remember you will owe us the overtime."

"Cheap at the price." Coch laughed. "Considering that in a few months time I'll have quadrupled the output of our gas production. With market prices at an all time high, my company will be showing record profits."


	9. It Begins

**Smallville**

_Part 9: It Begins  
_

**Out **in the middle of Jack Smith's back forty acres, underneath the canvas of an old large tent, lit by a several high powered mercury vapor lamps, Poindexter Drake and his assistant monitored the flow of the fracking fluid into their well head. It had taken them several months to drill the test well and to extract core samples from several layers of the underground strata. The Geologist's latest series of reports had indicated that there were several layers of porous oil bearing rock deep below the corn field. Poindexter had glossed over the parts of the report that dealt with the long dormant fault line that ran trough the oil deposits. He didn't consider it a problem.

"The pressure is building sir!" Montgomery said. "We might be able to start pumping in a few hours."

"Excellent!" Poindexter replied. "The boss will be very happy to hear that!"

* * *

**Labor** day dawned bright and early in Smallville. Over in the minor league baseball stadium the police and fire department teams were doing their warm up exercises to prepare for the annual exhibition game. The proceeds from the ticket sales would go to the winning teams charity.

On the other side of town the horse track had been hastily converted into an auto race track. The hard clay field had been tampered down with gravel and tarmac. So long as it didn't rain, the field would probably last long enough for the twenty mile race. Tiberius Mooney was getting his classic Chevy ready for the race. Lex Luthor had finally given up on squeezing out any more horse power out of the big block V8, it was as perfect as he could make it.

Out by the airport, Donald Hughes preflighted his new blimp. The TV news crew from the out of town network station were installing their equipment in the back of the gondola for the coverage of Smallville's Labor Day activities. Don had carefully weighed everything that went on board the lighter than air aircraft, and according to his calculations he was still well under gross weight.

* * *

**Professor** Ochanomizu and Reno sat in the hotel restaurant having breakfast. The professor was a bit miffed at the restaurant's lack of green tea, and he had to settle for an unfamiliar brand of English breakfast black tea. Reno drank his cup of black coffee silently. They both had ordered two egg omelets with a side of toast.

"I hope that we manage to spot Astro in town today." Reno said. "He's probably been found by one of the local farmers, and there are many square miles of farmland around this town. He could be anywhere."

"We may be in luck. Most of the residents within a fifty mile radius of Smallville will probably be in town today for the holiday celebrations." Ochanomizu said. "We just have to hope that our paths will cross."

* * *

**Robert** Sparks set up his observation booth atop the town water tower. From here he had a bird's eye view of the the baseball stadium and the auto race track on the opposite ends of the town. He had two telescopes set up, one on either side of the tower. It was a bit scary being up on the wire scaffold that surround the ball shaped water tank, but the tower was sound. He could feel the vibrations of the railroad trains pounding the rails as they passed by, the the tower didn't sway much at all. Sparks had a direct voice link between his microphone up on the tower with the local radio station. He'd be broadcasting reports of everything that happened in town that day.

* * *

**Right** in front of town hall, Martha Kent helped set up the bar-b-q equipment. She had volunteered to man the food stand along with a few other wives. While it was still several hours before the concession stand would open, they anticipated a good crowd of hungry townsfolk would be lining up to purchase hot dogs, hamburgers, and French fries. She checked the ice chests that contained packages of frozen meat and blocks of dry ice wrapped in butcher paper. On top of the long tables that lined the sidewalk in front of the town hall building were the warming trays with cans of Sterno, not yet lit. Several members of the Mayor's staff were loading the portable grills with charcoal. The sun was beginning to climb up high enough into the sky to scare away the morning shadows. Anticipation was in the air.

* * *

**The **Mayor gave a short speech and threw out the first ball of the charity game between the fire and police departments. About a mile away the checkered flag dropped and a dozen cars that had been waiting at the starting line roared ahead to begin the annual labor day motor race. Martha Kent had her first customer at the food concession. At the back of the baseball stadium Jonathan Kent was looking over the livestock that had been brought in by the members of the 4-H club for judging. It was a typical labor day in Smallville.

**Clark** sat in the bleachers just to the infield of the third base line. He was rooting for the fire department, having met a few of them a few days ago when he stopped the runaway train as Astro/Superboy. The game was still scoreless in the top of the third inning, although the police team had almost made it on the scoreboard with what would have been a grand slam home run if the fire department's center fielder hadn't been able to leap up and grab a line drive before it went over the center field fence.

* * *

**The** old canvas tent provided only a little relief from the hot noon sun as Clyde Coch arrived to inspect how things were going in the Smith corn field.

"The pressure is almost up to the minimum required to start pumping" Poindexter told his boss. "If it's all right with you, the two of us would like to run into town for some lunch."

"No, I need you two to get this equipment running fully." Coch said. He handed Drake a large sack. "I've already got you two a bag lunch from town." he said. "They have a concession stand with a BBQ going. I spared no expense, got you a good deal of everything on the menu. Enjoy!"

Drake opened the large paper sack and smelled the food. "Not bad!" he said. "Thanks." Drake and Montgomery each grabbed a hamburger and a large portion of fries from the stash of food, along with a bottle of cola.

"I'll be back in a few hours." Coch said. "hopefully there will be some black gold flowing into that parked tanker truck over there by then!"


	10. Hell Erupts

**Smallville**

_Part 10: Hell Erupts_

**Something** didn't feel right out in the bleachers. Clark felt a strange vibration, through the seat of his pants. It wasn't the vibration that the train made when it was highballing it along the main line into town, nor was it from truck traffic down Main Street. It wasn't the vibration of a low flying plane, nor was it coming from the race track. It was something totally different, something Clark thought he might have felt before, but couldn't place where. He looked around, but no one else in the stands seemed to notice anything, every one else was busy cheering for one team or the other. Maybe it was his heightened robotic senses that enabled him to notice what he was feeling, if so then it must have been a very weak vibration, and probably nothing to worry about. Except. Except that it was somehow familiar, and it was not a good memory.

* * *

**Poindexter** Drake watched the flow meters as the pumps operated. Considering how much fracking fluid they had pumped into the well head overnight, the amount of oil and gas being captured by the extraction pump was a bit of a disappointment. Either the geologist's estimate of the size of this field was way off, or their well hadn't been exactly on target.

Clyde Coch poured off a sample of the crude into a large beaker and swirled it around.  
"This oil is a bit on the thin side, but it still looks like high quality stuff." He told Drake. "I've seen far worse from the many wildcat wells I've put in."

"Yeah but the flow rate is poor." Drake said. "Take a look at the logs, see how much fracking fluid we've pumped into that well? We should be getting twice the flow out of it."

"Maybe." Clyde said. "We might have to relocate the well head. There might be a flaw in the shale down at the level where the well penetrated the deposit. You might not have hit the sweet spot close enough."

"Then were did all the release agents go?" Drake asked.

"We'll have to get the helicopter and do an aerial search of the area." Coch said. "Hopefully you guys can spot where the leak is. Somewhere out there, a fissure in the ground may have opened up, releasing the pressure pumped down below. If you spot what looks like a tar pit, that's our leak."

* * *

**Bob** Sparks was busy moving from one side of the water tower to the other, moving his eye to each of the three telescopes that he had up on the tower gantry walk. He used a portable wireless microphone to report what he was seeing on the air at the local radio station. Bob realized that most of the town was probably somewhere out in the streets, but some of theme were carrying their portable radios with them and were tuned into his broadcast. If you wanted to know what you were missing on the other side of town, you'd be listening to Bob's program on KSVL. As Robert walked on the narrow corrugated metal cat walk he suddenly felt a twinge of instability. It was as if the platform had started to undulate beneath his feet. The feeling quickly dissipated, so Sparks figured it was probably due to a heavy truck going down the street.

**Donald** Hughes was in the air above the auto race track in his blimp. Behind the pilot's seat were the three camera men from the television stations, and a news reporter with a digital SLR and a long lens. They had a good view of the race, now nearing the 1/4 way point. The makeshift race track was holding up well to the 120 mph traffic of the stock cars with their slick tires.

**Tiberius **Mooney was a good lap and a half ahead of the driver in second place. His souped up Chevy big block was purring like a kitten, and roaring like a tiger. He was gaining on the car ahead of him, about to increase his lead to two full laps when the Ford he was following suddenly flipped and started rolling across the field. The other cars narrowly avoided colliding with the out of control Ford, when a second automobile disappeared from view at exactly the same spot where the Ford had gone out of control. A large crevasse suddenly opened in the middle of the track, swallowing the second automobile. Mooney braked, spun his steering wheel, and hit the gas in a desperate move to avoid the opening in the track. His left rear tire rode on the very edge of the pit, but he managed to avoid disaster. The driver of the automobile behind him was not so lucky, as that car plunged into the opening right on top of the first.

"**Holly Crap!"** look at that! Hughes yelled from the cockpit of the blimp. Seconds after the second car fell into the widening opening in the earth, a tongue of flame erupted from the crevasse, making the race track look like a volcano had erupted in the middle of it. Sirens started to wail as the red flags were unfurled on the track by the officials. The remaining contestants managed to slow down and pull over without incident as the race came to a halt.

**Up **on top of the water tower, Robert Sparks felt the swaying as his perch began to rock back and forth slowly. The up and down undulation that he had felt a few minutes ago started up again, with greater intensity. It now felt like a pile driver was hammering away at the structure and he could visibly see the ground moving below him as the tower rocked a good ten degrees from right to left. In the distance, over by the race track, he could see a column of smoke quickly rising, and could hear the wail of the tracks warning sirens.

* * *

**Professor** Ochanomizu and Reno were walking about on main street, keeping their eyes moving. So far they hadn't spotted Astro, although they realized that he'd probably be dressed in some kind of farmer's clothing. Suddenly they heard the siren wailing in the distance from over by where the auto race was being held. Reno felt the vibration of the ground shaking before the Professor did, and he knew what it was.

"Ochanomizu Hakase, Earthquake!" he yelled out.

The tremor increased. In the distance He they could see the town water tower bouncing around. The radio tower mounted on top of it broke loose and fell toward the ground. Suddenly, panic hit the town, with people running all over the place.

* * *

**Clark **Kent jumped off of the bleachers and landed behind the ball field. He looked around to make sure nobody was looking and ripped off his clothes to reveal the tight fitting Superboy outfit he wore under his farmer brown bib overalls and long sleeve shirt. He quickly exchanged his work shoes for the red boots that were tucked into a pocket in his cape.

Astro took off skyward. Once airborne he saw the water tower, now missing its radio antenna was rocking back and forth beyond the limits of its center of gravity. The tower was falling over. Bob Sparks was hanging over the edge of the railing for dear life. Astro grabbed the tower and pushed it back straight. He grabbed Sparks by his shoulders and lowered the man to the ground a safe distance from the tower.

**Reno** spotted the costumed hero flying toward the falling water tower. "Hakase, look" he pointed, "That must be Astro!"


	11. Fire and Brimstone

**Smallville**

_Part 11: Fire and Brimstone_

**Lois** Lane sat with her mother in the grandstands just behind third base. It was the bottom of the fourth inning with the fire department ahead of the police department by two runs. The heart of the police department's batting order was up, and with two outs they now had runners on first and third. Sheriff Reed was up at bat, and the crowd went wild. On a two strike count he hit a blast that went flying towards the score board. At the instant that his bat made contact with the ball the ground under the stands started shaking. The line drive struck the scoreboard just as the crowd started to panic from the earthquake. The scoreboard leaned backwards and started to fall behind the stadium, right where the 4-H club had their livestock contest.

**The** animals started acting spooky, and Jonathan Kent found himself in the middle of a mini stampede as the cows and goats began to break free from the pen they were in. The ground began to shake under his feet. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the shadow of the falling scoreboard heading right for him. He couldn't get out the way in time, his path was blocked by the panicking livestock. At the last moment Astro-Superboy flew low over the stadium and grabbed the falling scoreboard. He lifted it up into the air, and set it down safely on the ground behind the 4-H exhibit.

Meanwhile the supports for the grandstand by the third base line creaked and groaned under the weight of the crowd as the ground under them turned into quicksand by the vibration of the earthquake. Lois Lane and her mother looked up and saw the overhanging sunroof break loose from its supports as it started to fall on top of the screaming crowd. Astro-Superboy zoomed back just in time to catch the falling roof. He held it up in midair, hovering with the power of his leg jets long enough for the spectators under the effected area to get to safety. Once the crowd was out of the way he lowered the structure to the ground.

Lois couldn't take her eyes off of the flying boy in the red and blue costume. There was love in her eyes, and her heart was beating faster than she had ever felt it before.

* * *

**Don** Hughes started to pilot the blimp from over the race track to the baseball stadium. He was now flying right over Main Street and had a good view of the townspeople running in various directions as the ground rumbled under their feet. Utility poles started falling and wires lay in the street, sparking. Without warning, an explosion underground threw a man hole cover from the street into the air like a Frisbee flung by a giant. The whiling disk grazed the rear of the blimp, tearing a hole in the gas bag. The injured aircraft started to vent gas and was loosing lift, and it started to plummet to the earth over the street. Suddenly, the lighter than air craft burst into flames, as Don realized that the bargain priced helium he had purchased was tainted with flammable hydrogen!

Astro-Superboy saw the aircraft in distress and flew towards it. He ripped the gondola from the burning gas bag and carried it toward the airport where he set it down on the tarmac. Its shaken, but safe passengers slowly crawled from what was left of the blimp. Meanwhile the envelope of the blimp, relieved of its burden, drifted away from the town to land in a cornfield, still smoldering.

**At** several locations around town the ground opened up and belched fire. Underground pockets of natural gas made their way though openings in the earth and erupted into flames. The fire department started to fight a loosing battle against the ten alarm disaster.

* * *

**Clyde** Coch drove his Grand Cherokee over the farm land toward the town airport where he had left his rented Bell 47J parked. He got to the field just as Astro dropped the remains of Donald Hughe's blimp near its hangar. The CEO and his two employees ran toward the helicopter which sat there with its engines idling. Its pilot motioned for the three men to hurry and get on board. He quickly took off just as the earthquake returned to the field. Barely in time, they watched as the ground under the Jeep 4x4 opened up and swallowed the expensive SUV as a tongue of flame belched from the ground.

"You guys got here just in time!" the pilot yelled over the roar of the helicopter's two piston engines. "I was about to leave without you. What the hell is going on here!"

Poindexter looked Clyde Coch in the eyes. "The geologist's report mentioned an old fault line running through the shale oil deposits." he said. "The seismographic images of the strata at that level didn't look very impressive, but I had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind. At your insistence to try the fracking on this well I ignored my gut, but it looks like I may have been a fool to do so. I think we've released a major earthquake under this area, and have managed to discover a huge natural gas deposit along side the shale oil as well. If this earthquake doesn't stop, the entire county may burn up!"

* * *

**Jonathan **Kent ran back towards the center of town to look for his wife. An explosion erupted from underneath the town hall building which set it, and two nearby buildings on fire. The intensity of the heat caused the gas tanks of several parked vehicles in the street to explode, sending people running in all directions.

Astro-Superboy flew back to the water tank and ripped it free of the tower that supported it. Flying over the burning buildings, he punched a hole in the side of the tank, pouring the contents onto the flames to extinguish them. Then, after setting the empty water tank back on the ground, he landed next to his step father and mother who had found each other in the street.

Reno and Ochanomizu arrived at the same spot after running toward the direction where they had seen Astro heading. Just as they got there, the rented 47J flew over the street, heading toward the state line.

"That's the scumbag oil baron that threatened me if I wouldn't sell him rights to drill for oil under our farm!" Jonathan exclaimed. "I recognize the helicopter that he was using to buzz over our field."

"Why didn't you tell me about him?" Martha asked. "We could have used the money."

"Not the way they wanted to do things." Kent told his wife. "They are fracking wells to extract the locked in oil from the shale. I've read that the process can set off earthquakes. I'll bet they started an exploratory well somewhere nearby without getting permission, that's probably what caused this disaster!"

"I can't let them get away with this!" Astro yelled taking to the sky again. He caught up with the helicopter and buzzed it, flying in front of the cockpit motioning for the pilot to turn around.

"Don't you dare head back to town!" Coch yelled at his pilot.

Seeing that he was being ignored, Astro ripped the main rotor blades from the aircraft, and then carried the rest of the helicopter back to Smallville. He set it down in front of the town hall where it was surrounded by a crowd of angry looking people.

Clyde Coch was pushed out of the aircraft by Poindexter Drake. "Don't even think of using me as your scapegoat!" the engineer yelled out.

"I assume you didn't get permission to start fracking out over by Smith's farm?" Kent asked the CEO.

"He didn't" Sheriff Reed said as he appeared out of the crowd and slapped handcuffs on Coch.

Not far away another blast erupted from underground as an abandoned warehouse at the edge of town caught fire.

"Unless that fault line closes up we're going to have these outbursts of exploding natural gas for some time." Poindexter said. "With a large horizontal drilling rig and some high explosives I think I could seal up the rift and stop this, but I have no idea how I'd get that equipment here in time."


	12. Astro Returns

**Smallville**

_Part 12: Astro Returns_

**Reno** spoke up immediately. "Astro could do it! He can tunnel through the earth and use his arm cannon to seal up the rift in the fault line."

"Who's Astro?" Poindexter asked.

A look of confusion, followed by a glint of recall flashed across Astro's face.

"Do you mean me?" He asked.

"Don't you remember?" Reno asked Astro.

"I'm a bit confused." the costumed hero confessed. "I woke up in Mr. Kent's cornfield inside of some kind of rocket ship, at least that's what I've been told. Then I found out I'm a robot with superpowers. I still don't remember where I came from or how I got here."

"Here, let me help you." Reno said. He pulled Astro's shirt up and opened his chest panel. Reno extracted a cell phone sized device and an interface cable from his jacket pocket and connected the test gizmo to Astro's network socket. He opened a telnet session into Astro's AI operating system and began a memory search.

"Yes, it seems your system made a backup copy of your memory, but it was never auto restored after you woke up from that EMP induced shutdown." Reno said. "I can fix that quickly!" Reno entered some parameters into the tablet sized computer and hit the execute button. Astro grabbed hold of Reno and Ochanomizu as he became a bit dizzy for a minute, then suddenly his memory was back on line.

"You can disconnect your debug terminal now Reno," Astro said. "I remember!"

Reno had a worried look on his face.  
"Astro, your energy is running low from running around fighting the earthquake in town." He said. "I don't think you have enough left to repair the damage."

**Lex** Luthor zig zagged though the crowd on Main Street on his electric bicycle. He parked his two wheeled vehicle in front of the downed aircraft and walked toward where the Astro and company were standing.

"Hey, Superboy!" he yelled. "I got the first batch!"

In Luthor's backpack was a large cylinder resembling a propane tank. He wiggled out of the backpack and handed it to Astro. Reno looked at the tank and asked. "Liquid deuterium?"

"Yes" Luthor said. "I've had my apparatus running continuously for several days extracting it from the sea water I had trucked in."

Reno reached into Astro's chest and extracted his refueling hose, and connected it to the tank in Luthor's backpack. He activated a pump inside of Astro's systems and the tank was quickly drained.

"YES!" Astro cried. "My energy levels are back to full strength! Thank's Lex!"

**Poindexter** Drake pulled a rolled up map from his pocket. He laid it on the ground and pointed to it.  
"Here is where the fault line intersected with the oil shale deposit, and here is where the well entered the strata." he explained. "Judging by where the eruptions have occurred so far, I can pinpoint with some certainty where the strata needs to be sealed."

Drake pointed to three spots on the map. "You'll have to dig down to the active area and blast away at where you find the leaks. Be careful, you don't want to set off any gas pockets underground and make things worse."

"Hai!" Astro said. "I think I know what I have to do. Wish me luck."

**Astro** peeled off the Superboy costume. Now dressed only in his dark briefs and boots he took off and flew toward Mr. Smith's farm. At a spot about a quarter of a mile from the drill head, between it and the town, Astro dived toward the ground and into the earth. He dug away at the ground in front of him with his hands while propelling himself forward with his leg jets. Like a tunnel boring machine on steroids he rapidly headed downward though layers the layers of earth and rock.

Astro turned his hearing up to 1000x and activated the DSP processors in his electronic brain. He was able to analyze the sound coming from the moving fault line to determine how to navigate through the earth to reach the first breach in the strata levels. Up ahead of him, he could see where the fracking fluid had caused the fault line to move and he morphed his left arm into the particle beam laser. Taking careful aim, Astro fired a blast that melted the rock and sealed the first breach.

He then continued to dig, propelling himself toward the second of the three breaches identified by Poindexter Drake. Once again he fired his arm cannon and locked the earth into position. Now there was only one more breach to seal. After changing course and digging for a few more miles underground, Astro arrived on target and fired his cannon for the last time.

Now he needed to retreat from underground without causing any more damage. He dug down deeper below the shale deposits into the harder granite below it. Guided by his memory of Poindexter's map he set course for a softer area that should let him dig upwards somewhere near the Kent's farm. Propelled by his leg jets, Astro dug his way toward the surface. He broke through to sunlight in the middle of Jonathan Kent's septic tank.  
"YUCK!" he thought to himself.

* * *

**Astro **landed back on Main Street right where he had taken off about a half hour before. Reno held his nose at the sight and smell of his best friend.  
"What happened to you?" he asked.

Astro just laughed. "Sorry Dad." he told Jonathan. "You're going to need a new cesspool"

* * *

**That** evening Martha and Jonathan Kent entertained Professor Ochanomizu and Reno as their diner guests.  
"I hope you enjoyed my wife's home cooking." he said. "It's nothing fancy, just good old country fixings."

"Thank you very much!" the professor said, "this was actually the best dinner I've had in a quite a while."  
Reno nodded his agreement with the professor.

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble," the professor asked, "I'd like to see what remains of the rocket that you found Astro in."

"No trouble at all," Jonathan replied. "After we rescued Astro from the wreckage, I retrieved the ship from where it crashed in our cornfield. I have what's left in the barn."

Jonathan led Reno and Ochanomizu out the back door of the house and to the barn. Sitting in the corner on top of a pile of hay was the twisted wreckage of the escape pod. The professor carefully picked through the remains and smiled. He plugged a memory module into the ship's electronics and downloaded the data from its on board computers. "It looks like it survived the crash rather nicely, all considering." he said. "Hopefully, this memory unit contains the data that we were hoping to obtain."

"I guess you'll be heading back home now" Martha said as she walked into the barn. "It was nice to have a son, even if only for a little while."

"You two were so kind to me." Astro said. "I'll be back to visit once in a while, I promise!"

"Come back anytime!" Martha begged.

**From **outside in the driveway, a car horn blared. A Blond haired woman and an equally blond nine year old girl entered the barn. "Sorry to intrude, but my daughter wanted see the hero who saved us today." she said. "My name is Alice Lane, and this is my daughter Lois."

Lois dropped her inhibitions and ran toward Astro. She leaped up at him, grabbed him around the neck and planted a big kiss on his lips. "I love you Superboy! You're my hero!"

Astro blushed. "Actually, my name is Astro, and I'm really a robot." he told her.  
"Gee whiz!" Lois cried out.

Her mother laughed. She walked over to Astro and bent down to kiss him on the forehead.  
"Thank's Astro."

* * *

**On **the plane ride back to Japan, Astro didn't say very much. Ochanomizu whispered to Reno, "I think it may take Astro a while to adjust to reality. I suspect he may need some help from his family and friends to fully return to normal."

"Don't worry about Astro." Reno whispered back. "He won't let this go to his head."

Hidden in his carry on luggage, Astro had secretly packed the Superboy costume Martha Kent had made him. It would become one of his most cherished possessions.

_The End_


End file.
